The need for and benefits of having managers who coach others has never been stronger or more widely accepted. Today coaching is in! Here’s the question: Are you?
Much More Workplace Coaching is Needed
In some organizations, credible and sophisticated HR/Talent departments provide extensive support for developing coaching skills. These organizations offer courses and support for managers to become effective workplace coaches. But a larger challenge remains. Most organizations are still not providing the training and on-going support managers need to become effective coaches. To make progress, the absence of training and support must be addressed. An on-going and long-term commitment is needed to help managers become effective workplace coaches.
Coaching Start with You and Your Priorities!
The vast majority of managers today have a widely dispersed set of roles and responsibilities, often divided in four broad areas:
- Management
- Leadership
- Technical
- Coaching (and Supporting Others)
Technical generally means that the person is working “on their own stuff” – some as much as 75 percent of the time. This leaves little time for other important responsibilities such as leading, managing and coaching others.
This reality is pervasive and creates a tremendous challenge for managers who juggle too many priorities. As a result, coaching — ones self and others — often falls to the bottom of the traditional to do list. Coaching opportunities abound but are often not considered pressing enough to break through the clutter of must do tasks. This is a classic example of how what may be important does not get done because it is not pressing (or urgent) in the moment.
It’s Time for Everyone to Make Workplace Coaching a Priority
The lack of coaching by managers doesn’t mean this behavior has to continue. Organizations must emphasize the need for coaching and provide relevant training and support. Managers must seek out training opportunities. Managers must also be coached. Being coached is another effective way to learn how to coach.
Managers musts also know that they do not have to be an expert coach to coach others and provide an effective coaching experience. They can begin by taking “small steps.” Start by providing meaningful feedback. Continue by engaging in meaningful discussions designed to help others keep growing.
The DARE coaching model developed by E-Coach Associates described below can help. DARE is a tool any manager can use to put coaching into practice.
Learning how to coach and coaching others must be every manager’s top priority.
Relevant Content and Great Coaching Tools are All Around Us
Providing relevant content to help others coach is also useful and important. To do this, take every opportunity to share relevant insights, articles, books, and blogs with others. But keep this in mind when it comes to sharing great content: it may be somewhat difficult to do. The internet has so many resources that finding just the right one can be time consuming and challenging.
Too many choices creates the appearance of “clutter” and often makes sharing just the right coaching content difficult. Coaching tools like QwikCoach provide a useful alternative. Relevant coaching content is abundant and easy to find. Leverage these tools to make great resources available to others and to make your coaching interactions more focused and easy to complete.
Bottom line . . .
Emphasize the benefits of coaching others and self-coaching. Let managers know how important it is to their own development and to use all the tools at their disposal.
The DARE to Succeed Coaching Model from QwikCoach
- Discover: What could be better.
- Act: On a plan that works for the coachee.
- Reinforce: To stay on track and move ahead.
- Evaluate: To determine progress and sustain improvement.
This performance coaching model can be repeated as often as time allows and in as many situations as improvement is required.
Self-coaching